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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28056351">Insomniac</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sergeant_Sporks/pseuds/Sergeant_Sporks'>Sergeant_Sporks</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Small Stories from the Big Apple [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Wizards: Tales of Arcadia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Homesickness, Minor Angst, but like the normal kind not the ptsd kind, falling dreams, rooftop talks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:40:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,125</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28056351</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sergeant_Sporks/pseuds/Sergeant_Sporks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Douxie can't sleep, and goes up for a bit of air. He's immortal-- he's used to moving, he shouldn't feel homesick.</p><p>So why does he miss Arcadia so much?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Small Stories from the Big Apple [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050809</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Insomniac</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This work is in honor of all the people who read fanfiction at 12 AM. Please go to sleep.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Douxie piloted the time ship through the clouds, skimming through the mists with a laugh. Merlin wasn’t here to tell him no, so he pulled it nearly vertical, doing a loop-de-loop in the sky. His hair stood straight up—or was it down?—as he was weightless for a moment before the ship completed the loop and regained its normal gravity. He crowed in exhilaration, speeding up to race a jet plane that was below him.</p><p>Then, the time ship was gone, and he was falling through the sky, tumbling towards the ground. Just before he hit the ground, Douxie woke up, still feeling like he was falling. He blinked in confusion at the ceiling, trying to remember where he was. Archie’s purring snores and Nari’s soft breathing grounded him firmly back in reality. Douxie ran a hand through his bangs. He’d had falling dreams before, of course, everyone did, but ever since he’d actually, well, fallen to his death, they’d started seeming a little more… surreal.</p><p>Douxie checked the clock on his phone. He only had an hour before he got up, anyway. He was up already—might as well enjoy some free time before he had to go work the morning shift. He wandered towards the kitchen, glancing back frequently at Archie and Nari to make sure that they were still asleep. He quietly opened the kitchen window, grabbing the fire escape and scrambling onto it. He made his way to the roof, sitting on the edge and looking out over New York City. He summoned his guitar and plucked gently at the strings, using the sirens and horns in the street as a tempo and background. The result was chaotic, haunting sound that, despite being set up with the sounds of a city, reminded him of the wild woods back at Camelot. Douxie sighed, dismissing the guitar. He wondered what had happened to the wild woods—he’d left so long ago. Probably they’d been cut down. Maybe that was the reason that the trolls had moved to Arcadia.</p><p>Nari’s head poked over the edge of the roof. “Can’t sleep?”</p><p>Douxie stretched. “Nope. Figured that there wasn’t much time before I had to leave, anyway.”</p><p>Nari jumped up and crouched on the edge of the roof next to him. “It’s never quiet here.”</p><p>“Never,” Douxie agreed, tilted his head back to look at the sky, “You can’t see the stars, either. Not really—just a few of the big ones. Back in Arcadia it was just a short hike away from the city, and then there was a sparkling tapestry of constellations above you, if you could get up to the top of the trees. It was beautiful, Nari.”</p><p>Nari gave him an understanding smile. “What else do you miss about Arcadia?” she asked.</p><p>A wave of homesickness swept over Douxie, making his chest tight. He <em>did</em> miss Arcadia—this wasn’t the first home he’d left, but losing it felt like losing Camelot all over again. “I miss my coworkers at the café,” he answered, “and some of my old classmates and teachers—” he smiled just thinking about them. “my chemistry teacher was a <em>saint</em>.”</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>“This may come as a shock to you, Nari, but I have a tendency to… make things explode.”</p><p>Nari gave him big eyes. “You?!”</p><p>Douxie laughed. “You’re getting better at sarcasm. Yeah. But my chemistry teacher took it like a champ. She was great.” Some of the tightness in his chest felt like it was loosening. Like just talking about Arcadia was making it better. “I miss patrolling the streets for monsters at night. And Zoe yelling at me to stay away from HexTech every time she saw me—it happened a lot, since the record store and Merlin’s bookshop were right next to each other.”</p><p>Nari hummed. “What happened between you two?”</p><p>Douxie flushed. “I… kind of broke a lot of things at HexTech.”</p><p>“Like…”</p><p>“Like computers. You know, I was trying to help out, use my magic like they did, and, well, my magic at that point kind of blew up in my face every time I tried to use it. So… the computers did, too, and sometimes bigger things. Aaaaaaaand we went out to hunt monsters and I... maybe sort of chased it right into HexTech and it destroyed a lot of stuff and we had to fix everything before the next morning. So she… really didn’t want to see my face near HexTech ever again.”</p><p>Nari laughed. “I do not blame her. That’s <em>horrible</em>!”</p><p>“Hey!” Douxie protested, “Computers are tricky, and so are monsters!” He grinned, remembering Zoe’s absolute horror that he could mess up that badly. “Anyway, yeah, she didn’t want me showing up again.” He sighed. “Maybe someday we can go back.” His words were hollow—he knew he couldn’t go back to Arcadia. He’d taken up the job of protecting Nari knowing full well what he was getting into—there wasn’t any backing out. There would be no ‘outlasting the enemy.’ The Arcane Order would keep chasing Nari until they got her, and they were just as immortal as he was, so that meant that Douxie would always be protecting her. Forever. The rest of eternity, or until the arcane order finally managed to kill him. He couldn’t ever settle back down again, not unless someone figured out how to kill Skrael and Bellroc.</p><p><em>You can’t ever go home again</em>, he thought wryly.</p><p>Nari “hm” ed thoughtfully, like she knew what he was thinking.</p><p>Douxie’s phone went off in his pocket, and he sighed, shutting off his alarm. Back to work. He climbed back down the fire escape and in the window, closely followed by Nari. There was a tiny spark of magic, and a green firefly danced in front of him. Douxie frowned, reaching for it, and it exploded into a tiny million lights, making sparkling constellations on the ceiling. He twisted around to look at Nari, who smiled and shrugged. The lights all twisted into a glimmering globe, and Nari threw the ball back and forth between her hands before setting it gently on the kitchen counter. She touched it, and it exploded again. She twisted her hand, and it closed back into a globe.</p><p>“The stars are still there, even when you can’t see them,” she said softly, “But if you ever miss seeing them again…” she gestured to the globe. “They’re right here if you can’t sleep.”</p><p>Douxie felt a smile break out on his face, and he grabbed his bag. “Thanks, Nari,” he said quietly, slipping out the door. Outside of the apartment building, he looked back up for the stars, but only saw neon streetlights. He shook his head.</p><p><em>The stars are still there</em>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know the implication of "you have a lot of nerve" was probably SUPPOSED to be that Douxie broke Zoe's heart or stood her up on a date to hunt monsters and get burgers, but my personal interpretation is that he nearly blew up HexTech or chased the monsters they were hunting into it, and she still hasn't forgiven him for it. I mean, she points at him and says "do not break anything."</p><p>I have a tumblr, now. There's not much there, but here's the link anyway. https://sergeantsporks.tumblr.com/</p></blockquote></div></div>
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